It's my understanding that you want to look for a diamond as close to 60% in table and in depth.

Techsan,

I recommend putting color above clarity. Spend the $$ to get a DEF color stone, and earn it back by moving to SI2/SI3 clarity. Sure, you'll be able to see minor flaws if you look at it from 3 inches away, but it will sparkle like a sono***un from across the room.

he he - you can't put the sequence f.a.g. anywhere in a word. I guess I can't talk about a ***got for starting a fire, or smoking a ***, or being completely ***ged after a long day of work.

the one I'm looking at is H, VS1

Techsan,

Those are good attributes. Here's something on depth:

http://www.diamondhelpers.com/fivesteps/4-make-depth.shtml

Without getting too detailed, anything too deep in terms of depth will cause less light to be refracted. There's some other traits to look at when considering depth, too, as the following link states, but at some point, you've just got to go with the diamond that you think looks the best.

http://diamonds.pricescope.com/60.asp

Thanks, thats the info I was needing to find.

The more I research and learn, the more I can't make up my mind.

I went to Jay at Jonathan's fine Jewelers. Here are the ring stats. I can't remember how much the diamond alone was.

1.08 Carat
D Color
VS1 Clarity
Princess Cut

+

2 .25 Princess but diamonds (1 on each side)

+

custom made white gold band

=

About $7k

Techsan, do you know what she wants?

Is radiant the cut she wants?

My advice in a nutshell is to learn as much as you possibly can. Then go with someone who makes you feel comfortable during the sales process. I was shocked how long this process takes to buy a friggin rock. Also, I would only buy a certified diamond, and only a GIA or AGS. stay away from EGL

FWIW, i went to Jonathan's as well.

She wants...radiant cut, about a carat
14k White gold, X Prong cathedral setting, with Pave set sidestones

Something like this



[This message has been edited by Techsan_02 (edited 5/2/2006 4:54p).]

Tech,

For a 4 prong setting, you might consider a Pt ring. White gold won't hold the stone as well.

What's wrong with EGL? My insurance company didn't seem to care, and they sell diamonds too.

94chem - I think you may be wrong. Gold has "memory" which holds a diamond in place with prongs much better than platinum. So I'm told.

EGL is not as respected in the jewelry world and typicall might not appraise as high. Doing my research I found that a lot of jewelers wouldn't buy diamonds from ANYONE without seeing the diamond if it was EGL, but if it was GIA then they would buy side unseen. GIA is respected and trusted and EGL is not.

THe way my jeweler explained it was that EGL is basically a bunch of independant facilities that fall under the same name but don't go by the same regulations. For example the New York office might grade it one way, and the LA office grade it another, so there is no consistency. GIA is much more uniform and strict, so you know what it says is what it is.

Ducks,

That kinda makes sense because of gold being softer, it would form to the shape of the stone. However, I would imagine that in the case of a single traumatic event, the Pt would do much better.

Gold = mom's little fingers that can undo those tiny buttons on a kid's shirt

Platinum = dad's strong hands that can keep the kid from washing overboard in a storm

Jim explained it very well. I took an EGL certified diamond to be independently appraised, and looked at it myself through the microscope, and compared it to the gemologists control diamonds. it was graded very loosely. also, I heard EGL and GIA have different approaches to grading a diamond if it's on the fence, i.e. if color is borderline F or G, EGL will always go F, and GIA will always go G. ( but typically EGL would probably even give that one an E) And a GIA - SI2 will probably fall as a VS1 EGL.

no, your insurance company won't care, for me it was piece of mind.

If memory serves AGS is even more strict than GIA.

yeah, but platinum is just a teeny weeny bit more expensive than white gold. Get a better diamond, and get white gold. insure the ring so that should she lose the stone it's no big deal.

Blue nile isn't too bad - my diamond is appraised at double what my fiance paid for it. Not that it really means anything. We liked that all of blue nile's diamonds are GIA certified.

One other thing I remember - a high appraisal is nice, but when you go to insure it, don't insure the whole value. Work with your insurance company to determine the actual replacement value - you can save a few $ on the article floater (remember that these high $ items aren't covered by your homeowner's policy).

Ducks and chem...I would agree with both of you...about two years ago, I accidentally (obviously) shut my hand in my desk drawer at the office (the long shallow one above your legs for pens and stuff!) It was just a cheap plastic drawer, but man did it hurt! In any case, I'm glad it hurt or I wouldn't have looked at my hand and so I wouldn't have seen that it CRUSHED the prongs on my ring. The diamond was still there, but as soon as I moved my hand the diamond fell out. Fortunately, I saw it all happen so I didn't lose the diamond. It was a white gold prong and we did replace it with platinum prongs. I would think 99% of the time the white gold prongs would be fine...it's just that 1%...

Well, apparently, I stand corrected and must rescind my previous post...Goose told me this morning when he read this that the original head on my ring was, in fact, platinum as well...

I think what occurs most often with prongs on a setting, is they will get snagged on something - sweater, blanket, etc.

When a platinum prong snags and gets pulled back from the stone, it stops. When a gold prong gets pulled back from a stone, it snaps back to hugging the stone. Gold has "memory" while platinum does not.